Cing Huat, now a father himself, is portrayed by Abdullah as someone who is in turn prepared to trade his daughters (for boys) without second thought.

This novel is full of negative racial stereotypes and BTN-like slurs. Remember Nasir Safar (the prime minister’s aide) who resigned after the comment (below) attributed to him:

‘Indians came to Malaysia as beggars and Chinese especially the women came to sell their bodies’

‘Interlok’ is filled with the same characterizations of Chinese — prostitutes, womanisers, gamblers, cheats, scumbags, opium addicts, and more. Although the Chinese have no ‘pariah’ in their language, Abdullah Hussain portrays the ones who came here as debased creatures and from the dregs of society.

So you must be wondering why it is only the Indian NGOs and political parties that have raised complaints and nothing is heard from the Chinese even when they have been similarly subjected to the implied ‘pariah’ slurs?